The MTA board last week directed the transit agency’s staff to do a feasibility study by April of how to provide the technology on its rail lines. All buses in the MTA’s fleet could be next in line for the service. “It’s an idea whose time has come,” said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday.

Oakland, Calif.-based AC Transit equipped about 80 MCI coaches from its TransBay fleet with Wi-Fi service. The fleet carries AC’s ideal demographic from Oakland’s Alameda and Contra Costa counties across three bridges, the Bay into San Francisco, the San Mateo, where companies such as Oracle and Visa are located, and the Dumbarton to Stanford University.

“It doesn’t make much sense for us to provide this service on our rapid buses, which are short-term, urban-type routes,” says Jon Twichell, AC’s transportation planning manager. “We were looking for more the white-collar crowd that is apt to be going to a central area of employment.”

Like AC Transit, Seattle’s King County Metro Transit also has a built-in set of choice-rider routes that service the University of Washington and Microsoft. Just to be sure, Larry Calter, IT manager for King County, says the agency tested Wi-Fi service on both long and short routes.

Virginia’s Blacksburg Transit (BT) funded its Wi-Fi services by obtaining open grant money available to it for the purchase of seven buses and forming a public-private partnership with a local business.

Despite the fact that service providers offer various pay models, many feel that it would be counterproductive to actually charge customers to use the service.

“The amount we would charge would be so minimal that it would defeat the purpose of enhancing the ridership experience,” says Utah Transit Authority‘s Brimley. Branding the vehicles that have Wi-Fi installed also helps prospective riders become aware of the service and helps current riders know that they are boarding a vehicle with Internet capabilities.